1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a seat, particularly a passenger seat, comprising a support structure and upholstered seat and back member mounted on the support structure by mounting means, the upholstery consisting of plastic foam with a lining of upholstery material.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In seats of this type the plastic foam members are usually mounted on mounting plates; usually they are cemented on the mounting plates. Another practice is to hold the plastic foam in place by means of the upholstery material which extends beyond the edges of the mounting plate and is connected thereto by nails, by press fasteners or by interlacing. On passenger seats, however, which have to take up substantial forces in the plane of the seating surface, mounting of the upholstery by means of press buttons or even by interlacing is inadequate. Accordingly, the only possible mounting is by nailing or cementing. Consequently, if seating members have to be changed it is not sufficient to exchange the relatively inexpensive plastic foam part. Rather it is necessary to exchange also the support plate, and this is quite time consuming. If the plastic foam alone is to be changed at least the remainder of the foam and cement has to be removed from the support plate before the new upholstery foam member can be mounted.
While such seats are quite simple and have low original manufacturing costs, they are relatively difficult to exchange so that repair work as a result of seat damage is relatively expensive.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a seat in which the plastic foam seat upholstery portions are firmly supported on the seat supports--as this is an absolute necessity in connection with passenger seats--but which nevertheless are removable and new seat upholstery portions can easily be mounted without time-consuming labor.
All the seats known so far required a plate or other mounting support for the plastic foam members since the foam members do not have sufficient rigidity to accept the forces acting thereon during use of the seats. It is therefore another object of the present invention to provide a seat in which the plastic foam seating and back support members are of such strength that they can be directly mounted on the seat support structure without the usual support plates.